Testimonial: TransTech

Among a thousand details, there are three essential elements a business needs for growth – a viable market, innovative products and integrated business systems to support production and delivery. Lacking any one will doom an enterprise, no matter how promising the others are. Trans- Tech Systems, Inc. – a Schenectady-based developer of leading-edge products and services for road construction – has been working to line up all three, in anticipation of increasing demand this year.

While most people believe that a market either exists or it doesn’t, that was not the case for TransTech’s Pavement Quality Indicator (PQI), a device that measures asphalt compaction to assure a quality job. TransTech has built a market by proving its product is better than the product that previously owned the market – the nuclear density gauge. Most highway, street and airport pavement projects are executed under contracts that require nuclear density gauge testing for compliance. How did TransTech get an industry to change? The initial strategy employed by TransTech to build their market was based on confidence in their product. Harry Apkarian, Chairman and CEO of TransTech, calls it a “try and buy program – try it for 30 days. If you don’t like it, send it back; if you like it, the invoice is due.” Only one of the first 20 came back. This approach has prompted many contractors that were looking for a better way to avoid penalties and earn bonuses to use the PQI on their jobs. They found that the PQI is faster, requires less training, does not suffer the regulatory burden and gives more accurate results than traditional nuclear density gauges. This started the grass roots demand for legal changes and now many laws have been rewritten, opening up a market that didn’t exist five years ago.

Nor is TransTech a one trick pony. This company focuses on using technology to improve the quality of an age-old process – paving. TransTech delivers two other product lines to fulfill this mission. Its innovative joint maker ™ products attach to paving equipment to deliver higher density, longer-lasting longitudinal joints. These products also improve productivity, safety and revenue by reducing handwork, reducing crew exposure to traffic, and achieving new airport and highway pavement specifications. The third product line offered by TransTech is its Pavement Temperature Sentry (PTS). This device provides the roller operator temperature feedback to know when compaction conditions are optimal, and when they are not. Based on this information the crew can vary feed rates and rolling patterns to meet or exceed specifications.

Market and product are necessary but not sufficient for growth; TransTech has also implemented a manufacturing system, Resource Planner by ADAKsystems, to organize their operations and support the anticipated growth. Building one product is easy, but managing finished goods inventory and allocating resources to multiple products with varying demand creates quite a juggling challenge. General Manager, Don Colosimo says, “During periods of growth, you want to control a business, instead of having it control you. Most small businesses fail because of lack of control. Resource Planner improves control by integrating the planning process and inventory management.” Resource Planner helps by developing an overall plan. Then it captures product & process details, customer & vendor information, and customer orders and vendor purchases so everyone can work together to execute the plan and to keep everything and everyone in balance.

And, as Jaret Morse, Production Manager puts it, “Now we are better positioned to take on higher volumes.”

So, as TransTech enters the new-year, prospects are looking good. All the ducks – market, products and systems – are in line for what looks to be a banner year.

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